I wish I could trust clients to use climbers but I worry to much, also our trees aren't as big as most southern areas. Ladder stands are great but you have to be in some pretty thick cover to hide them. I got about 6000 new acres and I need to purchase a couple more dozen stands and would like to get the latest greatest in saftey and comfort.

if your looking for some nice strapon treestand try the gorilla series I have a couple of them, the are pretty lite and pretty comfortable and the price is usually right. the safety harneses are pretty good, because now I think the come with full body types as well. just my opinion

the silverback series are prettygood in size the best info that you can find is go to there website or go to cabella's web site to see the different sizes cabellas carries the whole line of treestand from gorilla

I've been welding my own ladder stands. I have 5 right now and will have two more by the time the season gets here. Mine are very similar to the Big Game Luxury box ladder stand except I don't add a foot rest or a shooting rail and my platform is a bit smaller. I've never stayed in a stand for a full day until I began using my ladders.

As far as hang-ons go, I like the looks of the Rivers Edge Big foot. It has arm rests and a big platform. To me, that is a major plus because without arm rests, I find myself too uncomfortable as well as a bit nervous at the height. They provide a certain subliminal sense of security. You can also use the armrests to assist you while standing/sitting, etc. A big plus IMO. If I did not have armrests, I would definitely find a tree where I could tuck the stand in amongst some branches. I need that security of being able to grab onto something.

I strongly dislike climbers. I currently have an Ol'Man but I never use it anymore. In fact, I'm going to sell it before this season starts. It's a very good model and quite comfortable but unfortunately climbers have too many drawbacks IMO.
1) packing in extra weight induces more sweating.
2) Packing in the climber means reducing the extras I can bring in.
3) Despite what anybody says, they are way to cumbersome to use. Hooking to the tree can be a pain and it is hard if not impossible to do quietly.
4) They limit the trees you can use. Must be a smooth, straight tree with no limbs. I like being hidden around branches, etc.
5) Takes too long to get ready to hunt from one. On a ladder I climb up, hook up and sit down. On a climber I have to go through this long process of hooking to the tree and safely ascending the tree all while trying to be quiet and not get sweaty.
6) They can be alot more dangerous. I've had the bottom part drop twice on me. Once while climbing and another time when I caught my foot wrong on the strap of the bottom when I was just sitting up there. Both times caused my heart rate to skyrocket and my bibs to soil!!

I realize that a lot of people hunt public land where using ladders and hang-ons is impossible or forbidden. Their only choice is a climber unless you want to hunt from the ground. Personally, I'd elect the ground but getting in the air is an understandable desire.

There is plenty of room for all of God's creatures....right next to the mashed potatoes!

I hunt from a couple Gorillas as well. Nice stands. The ones with arm rests and foot rests are awesome! The newer ones have clips on both ends of the strap, whereas the older ones have only one. So the newer ones are easier to attach to a tree in that you can do it on either side of the tree. The old ones forced you to do it only on the left side.

As for my absolute favorite hang-on stand ever. It is an old Bear River Myles Keller stand. That thing came with multiple chains (for many locations) and weighed only like 7 pounds. Built in foot rest.

For stick ladders, whatever is cheap. They are all basically the same. I don't care too much for the non-connecting individual types. They are harder to put up and more dangerous.

--Hunters don't care about nature, but loony animal activists who've never been outside of San Francisco do??!!--Hipocrisy: People against hunting, but who don't have a problem buying new condos built on previous wetland habitat.---RIP-Woody-1/26/2010--